CALLUM HOWE’s start to the 2024/25 Vanarama National League season has ‘delighted’ York City manager Adam Hinshelwood.

Since the arrival of Malachi Fagan-Walcott on-loan from Cardiff City, as well as Ryan Fallowfield’s transition into centre-back, York have become a formidable defensive unit with the Minstermen keeping an incredible eight clean sheets from 12 matches.

Howe has been an ever-present at the heart of that defensive line for Hinshelwood, with the City boss admitting that he felt his captain had gone slightly under the radar for his recent performances.

Hinshelwood believes that Howe provides the perfect balance to lead to a clean sheet, and credited the recent form of York’s skipper.

“I am delighted with him,” Hinshelwood enthused to the Press.

“I think that he has picked up a couple of man-of-the-match awards at home and I am really pleased with the relationship that he and Malachi has formed.

“He sort of goes a bit under the radar because he’s just a solid player at this level.

“As a manager, those are the type of players that you sort of really rely on, when the ball comes in the box, you know he will take it for you.

“A lot gets said about our play in possession, but you need the balance right and you need the warriors.

“Previously in my teams, we maybe didn’t quite have that balance right, which is why we conceded so many goals.

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“We have now got a good balance, Malachi, Ryan and Callum all attack the ball really well, are all really good in the air and deal with a lot of what the opposition throws at them.

“There’s a lot of long throw-ins, a lot of set-pieces that we have to deal with at this level.

“To have those players in your back line to deal with that is really important as well.”

York’s recent run of form has been aided by City’s ability to keep a clean sheet, having managed four on the trot in Saturday’s 0-0 draw with Eastleigh.

Hinshelwood was again ‘delighted’ to register another clean sheet, and offered his reflections on the match.

The boss credited: “I’m delighted, we’re not giving much away.

“I think that they will be disappointed with one or two of their chances, it’s not like teams aren’t having any chances against us, there are still those odd moments.

“In the main, there aren’t many times that our goalkeeper is being called upon, whoever that might be.

“I’m really pleased that as a team and a unit, we’re doing that, we’re solid. It gives us a real base to play from, and long may it continue.

“We tried to do what we could to win the game.

“They probably had the better of the chances on the counter-attack, but all in all it was a good performance.

“We had a lot of the ball, but now we’ve got to start turning the possession into more purposeful attacks to create a few more chances.

“That’s our challenge, but obviously it is difficult.

“We respect the opposition at this level, each team provides a different test and a different challenge, but it’s a difficult league.

“There’s not much between all of the teams in the division, so we’ve just got to find a way and continue to work hard.

“The players have done that, they’ve worked really hard this week and that’s all we can ask. We try to improve and be better in certain areas.”

A notable main issue from Saturday was York's struggle to break down a resilient Eastleigh side, who defended their goal to City's frustration.

Hinshelwood spoke on the issue and his method in avoiding a similar fate going forward, also praising the supporters for their patience when watching gritty performances like what was required against the Spitfires.

“It’s an area that we have definitely been working on and looking at.

"For myself, it’s good to go and see how other teams do it.

"The best teams in the world, like Manchester City, find it regularly on home games and they’ve obviously got an abundance of quality but still struggle sometimes to break teams down.

"It is difficult, we’re under no illusions that teams will do that from time to time, but there’s more than one way to play this game and to get points in this division.

"We’ve got our way and we will stick to that, we’ll do all we can to be better.

"At times, when we’ve come up against it before, we’ve tried to stay on one side and really attack that one side where there is a lot of bodies.

"Switches of play, being patient and going backwards sometimes to draw the opposition out is a key element to what we’re trying to do.

"One of the things that I thought the fans were was being on board with that, they weren’t getting on our backs for going backwards at times and the reason we do it is to try and entice the opposition, so we can create some more chances."